A39675:907
Pneumatologia, a treatise of the soul of man
Pneumatologia, a treatise of the soul of man wherein the divine original, excellent and immortal nature of the soul are opened, its love and inclination to the body, with the necessity of its separation from it, considered and improved, the existence, operations, and states of separated souls, both in Heaven and Hell, immediately after death, asserted, discussed, and variously applied, divers knotty and difficult questions about departed souls, both philosophical, and theological, stated and determined, the invaluable preciousness of humane souls, and the various artifices of Satan (their professed enemy) to destroy them, discovered, and the great duty and interest of all men, seasonable and heartily to comply with the most great and gracious design of the Father, Son, and Spirit, for the salvation of their souls, argued and pressed / by John Flavel ...Pneumatologia, a treatise of the soul of man wherein the divine original, excellent and immortal nature of the soul are opened, its love and inclination to the body, with the necessity of its separation from it, considered and improved, the existence, operations, and states of separated souls, both in Heaven and Hell, immediately after death, asserted, discussed, and variously applyed, divers knotty and difficult questions about departed souls, both philosophical, and theological, stated and determined, the invaluable preciousness of humane souls, and the various artifices of Satan (their professed enemy) to destroy them, discovered, and the great duty and interest of all men, seasonable and heartily to comply with the most great and gracious design of the Father, Son, and Spirit, for the salvation of their souls, argued and pressed / by John Flavel ...
London: printed for Francis Tyton, 1685
Modern spelling is a reading aid: the words are the author’s, only the spelling is modernized. Original shows the page as printed, with the transcription marks.
I know there is much vanity in dreams, and yet I am fully satisfied some are weighty significant, and declarative of the purposes of God.
3. Lastly, An unusual and extraordinary elevation of the Soul to God, and enlargement in Communion with him, hath been a signifying forerunner of the death of some good men. For as the Body hath its levamen anteferale, lightning before death, and is more vegete and brisk a little before its dissolution; so it is sometimes with the Soul also. I have known some persons to arrive on a sudden, to such heights of love to God, and vehement longings to be dissolved, that they might be with Christ, that I could not but look upon it, as Christ did upon the box of Ointment, as done against their death. And so indeed it hath proved in the event.
3. Lastly, An unusual and extraordinary elevation of the Soul to God, and enlargement in Communion with him, hath been a signifying forerunner of the death of some good men. For as the Body hath its levamen anteferale, lightning before death, and is more vegete and brisk a little before its dissolution; so it is sometimes with the Soul also. I have known some persons to arrive on a suddain, to such heights of love to God, and vehement longings to be dissolved, that they might be with Christ, that I could not but look upon it, as Christ did upon the box of Oyntment, as done against their death. And so indeed it hath proved in the event.
Thus it was with that renowned Saint, Mr. Brewen of Stapleford, as he excelled others in the holiness of his life, so he much excelled himself towards his death; his motions towards Heaven being then most vigorous and quick. The day before his last sickness, he had such extraordinary enlargements of heart in his Closet-Duty, that he seemed to forget all the concernments of his Body, and this lower World. And when his wife told him, Sir, I fear you have done your self hurt with rising so early; he answered: If you had seen such glorious things as I saw this morning in private prayer with God, you would not have said so: for they were so wonderful and unspeakable, that whether I was in the Body, or out of the Body, with Paul, I cannot tell.